


we tend to see that as a perk, though

by alcoholandregret



Series: faketrout [2]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Crimes & Criminals, Fluff, Gen, I really can't think of any other way to tag this like that's it, M/M, it's just a happy little look into the 'family' I guess, ryan is a good dad okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 06:11:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14764134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alcoholandregret/pseuds/alcoholandregret
Summary: "There’swe’re criminals and people are starting to take noticeweird, and then there’s the everyday weird.”“The everyday weird?” Mikey asks.“Yeah,” Ryan shrugs. “The everyday weird.”





	we tend to see that as a perk, though

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [This House Is A Circus by Arctic Monkeys](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9pmDV2vCyU)
> 
> I mean. You don't _have_ to read From Broken Parts first but. y'know the au might not really make any sense if you don't. up to you buds

Ryan’s tired, and he feels like he’s earned the entire cheesecake he brings into his and Mikey’s room. No, correction - he definitely has. Sitting cross legged at the foot of the bed Mikey and Nate are currently cuddled up in - probably watching a movie on Nate’s laptop - he sets the cheesecake in front of him.

“Dude,” Mikey laughs, and Ryan just tosses the plastic cover onto the floor, “why?”

“It’s been an interesting week, okay,” Ryan picks up a slice and points it at them.

“Interesting weeks are kinda in our job description,” Nate points out, clearly eyeing up the dessert.

“You can have some if you want. And yeah, I know, but there’s  _ we’re criminals and people are starting to take notice _ weird, and then there’s the everyday weird.”

“The everyday weird?” Mikey asks, taking the slice out of Nate’s hand.

“Yeah,” Ryan shrugs. “The everyday weird.”

It isn’t that he minds it - far from it. He loves every member of their weird little family, and loves spending time with them all more than anything in the world, probably. It’s just that some days are more relaxed than others, and it’s no surprise that the relaxing ones are few and far between.

“At least the fires have been kept to a minimum recently,” Nate says. “I guess confiscating the lighters at the door worked.”

Ryan thinks about three days ago when he walked into the room to see Mo smacking the flaming curtains with his bare hands while Cazy filled up a bowl of water in the sink. Luckily they managed to get similar enough replacements that Mikey hasn’t noticed.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Ryan.”

He just stuffs cheesecake into his mouth and gestures wildly with his hands in a way that’s supposed to mean something like  _ “oops! Can’t talk now, mouth full!” _

Mikey sighs and buries his face in his hands. 

Nate leans forward and takes another slice of cheesecake. “Well, I’m curious about your  _ interesting _ week.”

“Okay, well-”

-

Generally speaking, when it comes to these kind of things, Mikey works more with Nick, and Ryan works more with Michael. It isn’t a steadfast rule or anything of the sort, but it just tends to shape up to be that way.

And, generally speaking, all four of them are there, or maybe it’s just Ryan  _ or _ Mikey with both of the minis. 

This is all to say, really, that it’s just kind of new sitting across the kitchen table from only Nick, a map and a few printed out news articles strewn all over its small surface.

“Why are we doing this, again?” Nick sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“Which part of it?”

He just gestures across the whole table. “I don’t understand what any of this has to do with anything. I’m not a detective or some shit. I can’t even do puzzles, and there’s at least a big picture that I can look at to help with those. But this?-” he lifts one of the papers about some drug bust and shakes it “-I got nothing.”

“No, you’re not a detective,” Ryan says softly, smiling slightly, “but it would probably help us if you were.” Nick looks hurt for a moment before he continues, “Owen does pretty well with the police, but having an actual  _ in _ would be great.”

“Shut up,” Nick laughs, and it helps Ryan breathe a little better. He hates it when Nick gets like this, because it too often spirals into something worse, and Michael isn’t here to calm him down right now.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“No, I want to, it’s just-” he clenches his jaw, obviously frustrated “-I can’t right now.”

“That’s okay,” he insists, gentle, “you-”

_ “No,  _ it isn’t,” Nick shakes his head, and it looks like his eyes are starting to water a little, and, fuck if that doesn’t settle like a rock in the centre of Ryan’s chest.

“Hey,” he stands up and steps around the table, “c’mere.”

He deflates a little and stands, wrapping his arms around Ry and pressing his face into his shoulder. 

It sucks that he feels like this, because it doesn’t really matter that this isn’t his thing. It’s Michael’s, which, again, is usually why he pairs off with Ryan. He returns the hug and rests his chin on Nick’s head.

“You don’t have to be able to do this now, or next month, or ever,” he murmurs. “We’re a team. You’re not alone, and you don’t have to do anything.”

“But-”

“Stop- we all bring something to the table. This isn’t your thing, and that’s perfectly fine, it doesn’t have to be.”

He pulls back a little, and Ryan lets go, but he rests a hand on his shoulder. “We like you for you.”

“You’re being sappy,” Nick laughs, wiping at his eyes. “I hate you.”

“Of course you do,” he goes and sits back down, pushing the papers off of the map. “So, getaway routes.”

“Right,” Nick brightens up immediately and leans over the table, rushing right into the several ideas he has based on who’s leaving from where and where the police are, and-

And Ryan can’t stop smiling.

-

“I wish he’d stop beating himself up about that,” Mikey sighs, and Nate rubs smoothing circles on his shoulder.

“You know he won’t,” Ryan picks at the plastic in front of him. “He doesn’t like not being able to do things.”

“I wonder where he gets it,” Nate teases, bumping into Mikey’s side.

“You know we aren’t like actually their parents or anything, right?”

_ “Speaking _ of that,” Ryan points at the wall.

Mikey slowly looks over at it, and- “do you ever control your kids.”

“I certainly fuckin’ try.”

-

He doesn’t even remember when Cole started coming by right after school, but Ryan’s grown to enjoy it a lot. Adam and Thomas always drop by later, but they usually still spend their time in the library or in Adam’s room working on “their nerd stuff” as Cole puts it. In the meantime, he usually does his best to help him with some of his homework, which is admittedly only sometimes productive.  Especially when it comes to history. But, again, he tries his best. 

Cole has started to get two copies of the books he has to read for English, and like, Ryan didn’t want to read this shit when  _ he _ was supposed to, but if it helps, then it’s fine. They usually sit on the couch and take turns reading out loud, making it more fun by trying to do each section in a different voice.

They’re in their Shakespeare unit now, which makes it even better, because they can just take characters, then.

_ “ _ _ Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye,” _ Cole reads dramatically, throwing the hand that isn’t holding the book in Ryan’s direction, nearly smacking him in the face, _ “Whose liquor hath this virtuous property-” _ he pauses and goes back to his normal voice for a moment, lowering the book from in front of his face “-this sounds like fun.”

“Stop it,” Ryan laughs, lightly smacking his arm with his copy of the book.

“Well it  _ does-” _

The apartment door opens, then, and Thomas and Adam stumble into the room, shutting the door behind them. They’re out of breath and that never, not once, has meant anything good.

“What did you two do now.”

“We got you a gift, Ry,” Thomas does his best impression of an innocent smile. “What’s the problem with that?”

“I assume I’m about to find out,” he sets his book on the coffee table.

“Uh huh. Close your eyes and hold out your hands,” Adam says, unzipping his backpack.

“Absolutely not.”

“C’mon  _ Dad,”  _ Thomas whines. “Don’t be boring.”

“If being boring stops me from holding a rat or something, then-”

“You don’t trust us?” he gasps and holds a hand to his chest. “That hurts.”

“Fine,” he sighs. Not that that worked because it made him feel bad or anything, he just knows he’s in a losing battle here. Even if Cole gets dragged into it, he’d side with the other two, so. 

So he holds out his hands, shuts his eyes, and tries his best to keep them shut when Cole starts laughing beside him.

And then. Cold.

“Okay!” Adam chirps excitedly, “open your eyes!”

So he does, and-

“What the fuck.” He flips the sign so it’s facing the right way and finally looks up at Adam and Thomas who look far too excited about it. “I have so many questions.”

“Shoot,” Thomas grins and stuffs his hands in his pockets.

“Why?”

“It’s an early Father’s Day present!”

“It’s April.”

“That’s why I said it was early.”

“Right. So you saw a road sign and? Stole it?”

“Oh yeah, for sure.”

He looks back down at it again, and one thing that hadn’t really fully caught his attention the first time he looked at it makes him sigh.

“Sixty-five? Did you steal a speed limit sign from the fucking  _ highway?” _

Adam nods this time, parroting, “oh yeah, for sure.”

-

“So you hung it up in here?” Mikey raises an eyebrow, clearly trying not to look amused.

“No. They did.”

“Of course they did.”

“Uh huh,” he stares down at the cheesecake in front of him for a moment before picking another slice. “And this is all just two days ago. Like, before dinner.”

Nate turns to Mikey. “Wait that giant fucking sign has been on the wall for two days, and you didn’t notice?”

“One, it isn’t  _ giant, _ and two, why should I?”

“You’re one of the most perceptive people I have ever met in my life-” he kisses his head “-and yet-”

“Yeah, yeah,” he rolls his eyes in that grossly fond way of his before pressing a kiss right below Nate’s ear.

God, those two never stop. He loves them, he does, so it isn’t as annoying as it  _ could _ be. Not that he doesn’t put on that it is, of course.

“Don’t make me throw this at you.”

“You’d never waste fuckin’ cheesecake, dude. I know you,” Mikey challenges.

“Maybe so. So then that night-”

“Wait,” Nate stops him, “there’s more on Tuesday alone?”

Ryan nods. “I said it’s been an interesting  _ week, _ but it’s really only the past few days. I’m just tired.”

-

Michael looks oddly hesitant when he walks over to where Ryan is scrolling through articles about things that don’t matter on his laptop in the living room, so he shuts it slowly and waits for him to say something. 

“Can you do something for me?”

“Of course,” he nods. Mikey would try to scold him for that, agreeing to something without knowing what it is - he always does - but, when it comes down to it? He’d do anything for any of them. And Michael probably won’t ask him to do something that’ll put him in any danger, anyway. Well, that, and if he  _ did _ do that, he’d have to deal with Mikey after that-

“I just. I don’t want Nick to know, okay?” That’s probably the most concerning thing he could have said, but Ryan doesn’t get to ask before he continues. “I wanna get a tattoo, but I don’t want to go alone.”

He has to fight to not sigh in relief. “Sure. Why don’t you want Nick to know?”

The only response he gets is a shrug, so he figures he might as well accept it and moves on.

“When do you plan on doing it?”

“Oh,” Michael smiles slightly and rocks back on his heels. “I kind of have an ‘appointment’ or whatever it’s technically called for seven thirty.”

“Michael.”

“Mhm.”

“It is six twenty.”

“Mhm.”

He sighs and moves his laptop to the table, getting up off the chair. “Alright, how far away is it?”

“Well-”

He’s interrupted by a muffled call of  _ “Marco!”  _ from the other room, to which he immediately calls back _ “Polo!” _

“Do you two have to do that?”

“It’s Mikey’s fault.”

“Yeah. I know.”

He called them Marco and Polo  _ once _ and they haven’t stopped using it to locate each other since. Mikey hasn’t regretted something so much, well, ever, probably. It’s funny most of the time, at least.

“Hey,” Nick pokes his head out of his room, “was just checking to see if you left yet.”

“Nope. We’re about to head out now.”

“Can you get more Dr. Pepper? Mikey drank all of it.”

“Sure.”

“Cool, have fun.”

With that, he disappears back into their bedroom, and Michael just kind of smiles at Ryan. “He thinks we’re running to the store.”

“Which means,” Ryan sighs, opening the front door and gestures for him to proceed, “we also have to go to the store.”

“Maybe.”

“So where are we going?”

“King and 23rd.”

“At least it’s close.”

Michael couldn’t be more clearly nervous if he tried, so Ryan bumps their shoulders together, which earns him a small smile.

“Why don’t you want Nick to know?”

“It’s a surprise. It’s supposed to be a surprise for you too - and Mikey. But. Like I said, I didn’t wanna go alone, so I thought I’d ask  _ you-” _

“It’s alright. I won’t look at until it’s done, or whenever you wanna show me.”

“Thanks, Ry.”

They get there a little early, but it’s alright, because there’s all this paperwork Michael has to fill out and sign, and then he goes off to tell the artist whatever it is that he wanted so they could? Figure it out? He really has no idea what’s going on, just sits on the couch at the entrance and waits until Michael calls him over.

“So, if you sit there-” he points to a chair right next to where he is “-and just don’t look over, you’ll be alright.”

“Gotcha,” he smiles and sits down.

“Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“But you’re here.”

“I guess,” he shrugs before joking, “do you need me to hold your hand?”

“I think I’ve got this,” he laughs, “but thanks for the offer.”

“So,” the tattoo artist says, walking over and sitting on the stool on the other side of Michael. “Already gave him the rundown on what to do, but I can go over it again, if you want.”

“I’m good,” Ryan shakes his head. Michael can tell him later if he’s worried about it or whatever - which he knows he probably will be.

“Alright then. You ready?”

Michael nods. “Yeah.”

The moment the needle makes contact with his arm, Michael grabs Ryan’s hand with his free hand.

It doesn’t take incredibly long, and the guy that was doing it was really friendly, just chatting with them about whatever, and by the end, Michael’s relaxed a lot - which doesn’t mean he let go of his hand.

“That wasn’t so bad,” he says when they walk out of the shop.

“Right, sure.”

“It wasn’t! It just. I don’t know. I didn’t know what it would feel like, and I wasn’t expecting  _ that _ is all.”

Ryan throws an arm over his shoulders. “I believe you. Now let’s go buy Dr. Pepper for our brothers, yeah?”

“Sure. And I need to get lotion for this thing.”

“Sounds good.”

-

Mikey knows the rest from there, more or less. They’d gone into the apartment, and Michael insisted it wasn’t important enough to call a meeting or anything, so Ryan did the next best thing - announce that they returned with soda, effectively drawing the other two out of their rooms. As soon as Nick saw the plastic wrapped around his arm, he stopped dead in his tracks.

“What was it?” Nate asks. “I haven’t seen him.”

Ryan smiles softly. “It says family lasts forever.”

Mikey nods. “With Nick’s and our birth years under it.”

“That’s- wow,” Nate shakes his head, grinning. “That’s really sweet.”

Honestly, Ryan could have cried when he showed them - Nick did. They all hugged him, at least, trying to be mindful of his arm, and it was a really nice moment.

_ ‘You’re the best family I could ask for.’ _

“That wasn’t so bad,” Nate points out. “Pretty far from it.”

“I didn’t say any of it was  _ bad,  _ just weird. Yesterday wasn’t really bad  _ or _ weird, but-”

-

Even with as much as he sits with the triplets and helps them study, he still wasn’t expecting a text from Gibby around noon, reading-

_ nater left. bring snacks. Finals. _

He could have used more words, probably, but it gets the point across pretty well.

Ryan throws the Twizzlers that they really only have for Gib in the first place into his bag along with some Goldfish that he’ll have to replace before Nick notices they’re gone, and heads over to the other building, not even bothering to knock when he gets to the apartment.

“Hey,” he says, shutting the door behind him. “We don’t really have that many snacks. Gotta do a store run soon, I guess.”

“S’cool,” Gibby says from the chair in the corner, and when Ryan looks over at him, he’s... tuning a guitar?

“Since when do you play that?”

“Uh. Pretty much forever?”

How the fuck did he not know that. “How did I not know that.”

“I haven’t had one in years. Just bought this last week.”

That makes him feel a lot better at least. “Oh that’s cool. Shouldn’t you be studying?”

“Needed a break,” he shrugs. “I’m kinda rusty, so don’t be surprised if this is a mess.” He pats the guitar, and Ryan sits down on the edge of the coffee table and just listens when he starts playing.

If this is ‘rusty’ he can’t imagine what the normal is.

“Holy shit,” he muses when there’s a pause, because while this has been really cool, he got here a half hour ago. “You should probably start studying, though.”

“Yeah, I know-” he leans it up against the wall “-I was running out of things I remembered anyway.”

Ryan laughs lightly at that. “Could have fooled me.”

“Okay, let’s go, bring the snacks.”

He stands up and they head into his and Nate’s room, where one of the beds and a desk are covered in notebooks and textbooks.

“This may look like a mess but it’s nothing compared to the disaster these finals are gonna be,” he sits down on the only empty space on the bed, and Ryan sits on Nate’s.

“I don’t doubt it. So about that, I can help with the high schoolers’ homework, but this is way out of my league.” Not that he wouldn’t try to help - that’s why he’s here, after all.

“I know. You’re just calming to be around. Figured it’d help me focus. And I can always have you ask me questions to see if I know the answers, y’know?”

“Sure, but what do you mean?”

“The calming thing?”

“Yeah.” That’s something he’s never heard, and he’s not really sure what exactly about him would be  _ calming. _ Not that he’s particularly intimidating or anything - unless he has to be - and, okay, not important.

“You’re just-” he waves his pen around aimlessly for a moment “-it’s something about you, I don’t know. It’s good to have you around in stressful situations and shit. Calming.”

“Like a support dog?” Ryan lays on his stomach and props his chin up on his hands.

“If you want to look at it like that,” Gibby laughs, “then sure. There’s a reason everyone likes to have you around when I have to patch them up and stuff.”

“Oh. I just do it because I want to make sure everyone’s okay.”

“I know that- we all do.”

“Oh.”

“Can you read off some of these questions,” he stretches over to hand Ryan a stack of papers that appear to be an old exam. “It’s been months since we learned that.”

-

“I have way more facts about way too many science-y things now. I was there for like, eight hours.”

“I know,” Nate laughs, “I got there when you were leaving.”

“I just hope I helped. I know it’s important.”

“I’m sure you did, Ry bread,” Mikey says. “Studying isn’t really weird in any way either, though.”

“No, and I already said that, but it’s still not something I normally do. It was fine, and I’ll do it again if he needs me to, but still - different. Besides, he’s easily the most fuckin’ normal one out of all of us.”

It’s probably because he has to, like, exist in public all the time. Nate has his job - that he works fewer and fewer hours at these days, considering he doesn’t really need the money - and the triplets go to school, but. Well, Gibby has work, and  _ college, _ and also isn’t sixteen.

The kids don’t count in this argument anyway.

“Obviously,” Mikey agrees.

“So then  _ today,”  _ Ryan continues, picking up another slice of cheesecake, because he’s gonna need it to deal with reliving all of the day’s nonsense. That’s why he bought it in the first place.

Mikey interrupts while there’s food in his mouth, “wait, there’s more?”

“When isn’t there more?”

-

It’s not unusual to hear heated arguments when he’s out wandering, even this early in the morning, but it is a little strange to hear it at this particular park. As far as he knows, this isn’t one of the places that anyone has a “claim” over. It’s one of the reasons Nic and Owen both stayed there when they needed to. As he gets closer to it, the voices are clearer, and-

Well, that makes more sense.

“Hey, come on, you  _ know _ that I love you,” Nic shouts, throwing his hands up.

“Do I know that?” Owen crosses his arms. “Do I really?”

“Don’t fuckin’ go there.”

_ “You  _ said you didn’t know why we’re together, not me.”

“You agreed!”

“But I didn’t  _ say _ it.” 

Concern settles somewhere in the pit of Ryan’s stomach, and he hurries over to them. This doesn’t seem good. No. It seems the exact opposite of good. Which is not Nic and Owen. They’re  _ always _ good. Always.

“Hey,” he says hesitantly to get their attention when he’s a few feet away. “Is everything okay?”

_ “No,”  _ they say at the same time, not even bothering to look over at him. 

“You can’t say shit like that,” Owen continues the argument right where it left off. “Especially if you think I won’t say it back.”

“You started this mess in the first place!”

“And  _ you _ escalated it.”

“Was I supposed to keep a level fucking head when you accused me of  _ lying _ to you?”

Ryan would really rather this - whatever this is - not get any worse than it already is. “Okay, c’mon, let’s bring it down a little bit.”

Nic looks over at him and gestures to Owen, “but-”

“No,” he crosses his arms. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“You sound like my mother,” Owen says.

“And you sound like children.”

“Damn, Ry.”

“So,” he says slowly, letting his arms fall to his sides. “Can one of you please tell me what the fuck is going on here?”

Nic opens his mouth, but Ryan cuts him off to add one more thing before he starts.

“Without shouting.”

Nic pauses for a moment before trying to speak again. “So we were on our way to the store, and-”

“You’re telling it wrong.”

“How the fuck am I telling it wrong?”

“You just  _ are.” _

“Fine. You do it.”

“So we were on our way to the store, and-” Ryan runs a hand down his face “-we were deciding on what kind of ice cream to get.”

“Usually we get chocolate or cookie dough, but we were gonna switch it up this time.”

“And I suggested we get neapolitan, ‘cause it still has chocolate in it, y’know.”

Ryan nods slowly. “Uh huh."

Absolutely none of this seems relevant at all, but considering they aren’t arguing at this very second, he’s not gonna touch it.

Nic sighs dramatically, then. “And I was on board with that, but when  _ I  _ pointed out that it’s even better because it tastes like chocolate covered strawberries - and who doesn’t like that-”

“Right,” Ryan nods again, hoping they’ll wander their way to the point soon.

Owen picks it up, clearly on the verge of raising his voice again. “So naturally I had to stop and ask him how he eats it.”

Dear god. “Yeah.  _ Naturally.” _

“And he just mixes it all together.”

Nic takes a deep breath, and doesn’t look away from Ryan, trying to keep his cool. “Yeah. That’s how you’re supposed to eat it. That’s why they’re all there.”

_ “No, _ if you were supposed to eat it like that, it would come mixed together! It’s split perfectly for a reason!”

“Hold on,” Ryan holds his hands up in front of him. “Please tell me this is not what you were arguing about.”

“Well, yeah,” Owen shrugs. “It’s serious stuff.”

“I really,  _ really _ fucking hate both of you.” He’d leave it at that, but then. “So what was the whole ‘don’t know why we’re together’ shit about, then?”

“Well I said, y’know, mostly as a joke-”

_ “Mostly.”  _ Owen stresses for him.

“-that I couldn’t, in good conscience, be with someone that would eat it like that. It’s like. Against the law.”

Owen rolls his eyes. “Name one thing we do that  _ isn’t  _ against the law.”

He has a point there. Not that he’s gonna say that.

“Anyway, it went from there. I don’t want to go through the rest.”

“Why? Because I was right?”

“No. Christ, Owen, you weren’t  _ right.” _

Ryan feels like that’s going to fire everything back up again, but instead, Owen seems to deflate a little, and now he’s confused again. “Is this still about the ice cream?”

“No,” Nic shakes his head but doesn’t explain further.

“I’m sorry.”

He remembers the beginning of he’d heard, and suddenly he thinks he understands. 

“Are you two good now?”

“Yeah,” Owen nods. “Fuck. That was fucked up.”

“You’re alright,” Nic smiles softly and pulls him into a hug, resting his chin on top of his head. “I guess we should get a different ice cream.”

Ryan is, honestly, still trying to keep up with all of this. “You don’t have to.”

Owen’s, “are you kidding me” is muffled by Nic’s shoulder.

“No? Just scoop half of it for each of you and eat it how you want?”

-

“Damn, their food arguments never get that bad,” Nate muses, looking a little shocked.

“They do that a lot?”

“Not really, but it’ll happen.”

“Why?”

Mikey laughs at that, “oh come on Ry, don’t pretend that we haven’t had stupid arguments before.”

“Yeah but I  _ have _ to tolerate you.”

“And  _ I _ have to deal with you telling me water isn’t wet.”

“Water is just-”

“Hey,” Nate interrupts, “yeah can we not do this again. Thanks.”

Ryan and Mikey hold eye contact which essentially means they both know they’ll just pick up the conversation later - Nate only managed to put a pin in it.

“Well, after  _ that _ I came home, ‘cause I really couldn’t handle any more excitement before eleven in the morning.”

Nate nods. “That’s fair.”

“It didn’t last very long, though.”

-

“Hey Ry, can you come here for a second?” Cazy asks the moment Ryan answers the phone.

“Well,” he says slowly, “I don’t know where  _ here _ is.”

“Our house.”

“Right.”

He doesn’t reply for a moment and Ryan sits up, the TV remote falling off his chest and onto the floor. When it seems like they’re just going to sit there in silence forever, he continues.

“I don’t know where that is.”

He’s fairly certain that the only two people who have even a general idea of where the Jacobs live are Nate and Gibby. Not that it’s some big secret or anything, they just usually hang around at either of the apartments or keep to themselves. Typically the former. 

The point is, Cazy should probably know that.

“Oh shit. I thought we told you.”

“Nope.”

“Oh. Okay. Do you know where Whiteridge is?”

Ryan just pauses for a moment, because, “did you really just ask me if I know where something in the city is.”

“Good point,” Cazy laughs. “It’s at the top of Wood Street. There’s a plastic flamingo out front.”

Ignoring  _ that, _ he sighs and swings his legs off the couch, stretching a little. Pretty much everything about this trainwreck of a phone call had kinda taken away from the beginning of it, and. Well, now there’s concern blossoming in his chest - even if Cazy had been so light-hearted about everything. Honestly, that’s just how he is. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just need your help with something, s’all good.”

“Okay,” he breathes, relieved. “Do I have to take the car or do you have time?”

“You can walk, we got time-” there’s a crash followed by a muffled  _ “man what the fuck!”  _ from Mo “-but uh.”

That gets him to get up and turn off the TV. “Alright, alright, I’m leaving now.”

“Cool thanks.”

With that, Cazy hangs up, and Ryan pockets his phone, trying his best to prepare himself for whatever he’s about to walk in to. The walk should be about forty-five minutes if he remembers correctly - he does, he knows he does - so at least he has time to do that.

Instead, like he always does, he finds himself making mental notes about a lot of the shit he sees on the way. There’s nothing really new it seems, but it’s always good to have a refresher.

Sure as shit, there’s a pink flamingo in the yard of a tattered house on the top of Wood Street. He’ll have to ask about that at some point.

When he knocks on the door, he hears Mo shout, “he’s here, do you have them all?”

Which. Not the best sign.

Mo opens the door then and hurries him in, shutting the door behind them, and that’s not the greatest sign either.

“Okay, we’re good.”

Ryan doesn’t even get the chance to ask before two kittens run into the room, one of them pouncing on the other.

“Oh no.”

“You see why we called you?”

“Me in particular? No. I feel like a shelter would have worked.”

“Absolutely not,” Cazy says, walking into the room with a kitten in each arm. “These are Roxy’s babies.”

“I’m sorry, who’s?”

“The stray we feed sometimes. We call her Roxy, and she had these little guys in the back under our house a few weeks ago.”

He really doesn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this.

“Right, okay. So why are they inside.” 

Cazy puts the one that’s wiggling down and hands the sleeping one to Ryan, who takes it without question. An hour ago he thought something might actually be wrong, and now he has a kitten in his arms. 

That must just be the way this day is going to go.

“We haven’t seen her in a while,” Mo says quietly and sits down to wiggle his fingers in front of one of them, who bats at his hand. “Like, days. So. Safe to assume she won’t be back, and they have to eat. That’s why.”

“Well, if you don’t want to give them to a shelter, what’s your plan.”

“We figure we can keep them,” Cazy shrugs. “But we don’t know what cats need and stuff, so-”

“You called me. Gotcha.”

“You had a cat right?”

“Yeah, two. That was a long while ago, though.”

“That’s fine,” Mo scratches the kitten’s ears when it loses interest in attacking his hand. “I feel like the art of taking care of cats hasn’t changed all that much since then.”

“Okay, dick,” Ryan laughs, looking down at the little grey one in his arms, still sleeping. “I can help. Are you sure about this? Four cats is… a lot.”

“We’ll manage.”

To be completely honest, as much as he loves Cazy and Mo, he isn’t sure that they should be in charge of any living things - this includes themselves most of the time - but, then again, they apparently have been at least kind of taking care of these little guys since day one.  _ And _ they’re attached enough that they don’t want to give them up, so. Maybe they will manage.

“So. What did you name them?”

“That’s Asher,” Cazy gestures to the one he’s holding, “‘cause he’s grey, like-”

“Ash. Got it. Did you name them all after fire shit?”

“Duh,” Mo laughs. “This little girl is Spark, and the other two sisters-” he points to the ones that haven’t stopped running around since the moment Ryan walked in the door “-are Flicker and Flame. Which, before you say anything, is because they just don’t stop. Ever. And like, they’re always together.”

“I really wasn’t going to say anything, but okay.” He wanted to, but also, he didn’t expect anything less from them. “But uh, you know you really shouldn’t keep Asher here with the other three, right?”

“Yeah,” Cazy says sadly. “Don’t need any more of these little guys.”

“It’s a while away - you said they’re only a few weeks old - so you have time to find someone-”

“We were hoping you’d take him.”

Ryan looks down at his little sleepy face, and he was admittedly charmed the moment he was handed to him anyway, but “Mikey would kill me.”

“One, that is the fuckin’ dumbest thing you’ve ever said. He would never. Two, what about your minis?”

“What about them?”

Mo laughs, evidently catching on to what Cazy was saying. “Well. They’d make it three against one.”

“I don’t think our apartment is a democracy.”

-

“So I gave them a run-down on how to take care of cats, stopped to get the cheesecake on my way home, and now here I am.”

“Where are the cats now?” Mikey squints at him, and Ryan knows exactly what he’s implying - only  _ implying _ because he may have left the whole conversation about Asher out of the story.

“For the most part, still over there.”

“Ryan,” Nate sighs.

“For the most part?”

Ryan gestures noncommittally with one hand. “There’s a  _ chance _ Michael and Nick have one of them in their room.”

Mikey shakes his head, “Ry.”

“It’ll be fine. Nick looked like he might cry when it poked its head out of my pocket.”

“You kept it in your pocket?”

“Where else was I supposed to put it?”

That earns a little burst of laughter out of Nate, which effectively ends the conversation, because now Mikey has to pause and stare at him like he’s the best thing in the world. He does it every time without fail, and he’ll probably never stop either.

It’s a lot.

Then again, when has Mikey ever  _ not _ been a lot. That’s like, his thing.

Nate, moving his arm from behind a now betrayed looking Mikey, shifts so he’s sitting up a little better and smiles softly when he says, “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

“Not have a cat, I guess,” Ryan shrugs with one shoulder and looks down at the few slices of cheesecake that’s left.

“While that’s true, you know that’s not what I meant.”

“Yeah.” Kind of, a little. Except he doesn’t. “No,” he looks back up and Nate looks confused.

“No you don’t know or no to what I said?”

“Know.”

Mikey raises his hand, “was that no like no or know like-”

“Shut up, dude,” Ryan laughs, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know which word you meant?”

He pushes at Mikey’s leg like that’ll do anything. “Why do I associate myself with you?”

“Because you have to.”

“I don’t really  _ have _ to. I could-”

Nate interrupts, trying to get the train back on track, which is pretty damn hard to do when it’s the McLeods that pushed it off in the first place. Nate is probably one of the only people able to pull it off - mostly because Mikey  _ generally _ listens to him. At least a little.

“What I  _ meant _ was-” he bites his lip like he’s trying to find the right words, and Ryan smacks Mikey’s knee, knowing he likes to kiss Nate when he’s thinking like that - usually just so he can laugh when he ends up losing whatever it was on his mind completely. They’ve already derailed this once. No need to do it again so soon. “We all do  _ our _ things y’know?”

“Yeah? What does that have to do with me?”

“I mean. That’s what makes us a team, we all play our parts.”

“Well, yeah, obviously.” This really feels like it’s getting nowhere, and Ryan is far more confused than he was after the first statement. Now he kind of wishes they had stayed on the kitten topic. He could at least tell them what they named them all, which would be fun.

“It’s just that  _ you _ make it a family.”

He can feel himself turning red, and he goes to say something, but Nate just keeps talking.

“‘Cause you can put any group of people together and they’ll work with each other just fine. Like coworkers and shit. A  _ team.” _

“Yeah, and-”

“You’re the difference, you know that, right?”

“No? I-” he has absolutely no idea what’s going on, or what Nate means. He only came in here to eat cheesecake and - rant isn’t the right word, because he isn’t upset about any of it, but- “what are you talking about?”

Mikey settles against Nate’s side, evidently giving up on playing a role in the conversation, instead choosing to just watch it play out.

“Well it’s not- we’re not a bunch of separate pieces? It’s more like we  _ were _ pieces, but. You’re the glue that holds us together.”

Mikey looks up at Nate, pouting slightly. “Why aren’t you ever nice to me like that?”

He rolls his eyes and pats Mikey’s cheek. “If I pump your tires any more they’ll fuckin’ burst.”

Ryan’s just kind of staring at his hands, trying to put together what was just said.

“I’m not any different,” he shakes his head and doesn’t even really know why. “I’m just-”

“Hey,” Nate says quietly, and he only continues when Ryan looks back up at him. “There’s a reason you’re who everyone comes to with stuff. You’re - for the most part - why most of us are even here. That’s why I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

He’s not…  _ wrong. _ It’s still a lot to take in, especially when he’s at least seventy percent sure  _ Mikey _ is the keystone. He’s certainly the one that’s in charge of shit, but. That’s not really the same thing, is it?

“I- thank you.”

“He’s right,” Mikey smiles softly. So he wasn’t giving up, then. More like waiting his turn or something. “You know everything about everyone-”

“I only just found out where Cazy and Mo  _ live.  _ Like. A few hours ago.”

“Will you just let me be nice to you?” he laughs. “It’s- I don’t think you even notice it, but the way we have always paid attention to everything that goes on outside of our walls? You do it with us, too.”

He’s never really thought about it that way, more or less just figuring he’s able to read people pretty well.

But also, taking complements is fucking hard, and this has been a  _ lot, _ and he gets the gist of what they’re saying, so when Mikey goes to start talking again, he interrupts. There’s no real need for it to be said again in a different way, which he’s sure is probably where that was going.

“Stop it,” and it’s hard to keep his voice even when his eyes are starting to water because of how overwhelmingly  _ full _ his chest feels, “I can’t take any more of this.”

“Yeah,” Mikey nods, “I think I used up all my ‘be nice to Ryan’ tokens for the whole month anyway.”

Ryan wipes at his eyes, which somehow makes it worse, and it’s a little shaky when he replies, “guess I’m lucky there’s only ten days left, then.”

“Guess so.”

“C’mere,” Nate holds one arm out, and Ryan hesitates for a moment, but it’s pretty brief. He  _ could _ use a hug right about now.

He slides over, somehow managing to sit between the two, trying not to actually properly  _ cry _ when Nate wraps his arms around him.

“I hate you both,” he mumbles into Nate’s shoulder.

“Good-” Mikey pats his arm “-because we hate you too.”

The bedroom door flies open, and Ryan is startled enough that he jumps and Nate lets go of him.

“Sorry,” Adam says, and he’s talking way too quickly, “Dad what are we doing for Cole’s birthday? It’s important.”

Nate laughs, and Ryan wonders when those three calling him that went from being a joke to what they actually refer to him as most of the time. He’s only a year and a half older than them - nearly two years with Thomas. Then again, it’s not like he really cares.

Wiping his eyes, he turns around to face the door. “Did you get him anything?”

“Well yeah, and so did Thomas.”

“That’s a good start, at least.”

“Uh huh, c’mon.”

He hardly gets to even  _ blink _ before Adam is pulling his hand.

“Where are we going?” he sighs as he gets off the bed.

“I don’t know yet.”

“Perfect.”

Mikey and Nate laugh as he’s dragged out of the room, and Adam’s going on and on about what day Cole has to spend with his family and this that and the other thing, and Ryan just can’t find it in him to be anything but fond.

**Author's Note:**

> small note but michael's tattoo is one he actually has ,, but with his actual family's birth years yknow
> 
> Listen. Listen. I know I said I wasn't going to write in this au again _but:_  
>  \- I missed the characters and exploring their dynamic is so fun  
> \- I love ryan mcleod
> 
> so really this was bound to happen. also, when have I _ever_ not written something after swearing I wouldn't. that's honestly almost like guaranteeing that I'm gonna write it. goddamn.
> 
> catch me on [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/alcoholnregret) and [tumblr](http://www.sidnate.tumblr.com)


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